Nothing is ever easy. Nothing is EVER easy. Nothing, is, ever, easy. NoThInG iS eVeR eAsY. Ne Rien est ever facilement. Nooooothing. Ever. Easy. Is.
So, long and short, it looks like the camper we want is too large/heavy/whatever for me to drive on my paltry Guernsey car licence. Meaning I need some flipping megatron licence to enable me to drive lorries to be able to drive it??? Nick is from England so he automatically can drive lorries and therfore campers, as that is where he learnt to drive. How rubbish!! I wish I had changed my Gsy licence to a UK a few years ago but now they're changed the rules so you can't do that anymore.
I have my first lesson booked for next Tuesday. Raaaaaaaah etc etc. Bit different to the Smart car I'm used to. Nick had called the instructor up before I did and when I spoke to the guy he was like 'your husband tells me you don't even like to drive his 4x4' Cheers! He already has no faith and he hasn't even met me yet. I also need to take the theory test before I can take the practical. DOUBLE cheers. All in a month before we go travelling. The category test I need is for the largest vehicles, big lorries, so that is what I will have to learn to drive!
We have already found a lovely van and don't want to have to get a smaller one so it's either that or Nick does all of the driving. Ha, that is tempting I must say.
Anyway that is one of a series of about 4 fairly large obstacles that are hampering our plans at the moment. The other ones are also an absolute mare, but I can't go into the details on a public blog cos it's to do with finances etc. I just felt the need to vent my spleen here on my blog because that is what it's for. It's all a bit stressful! I can't wait to be on the open road with all this shit outta the way!!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Masquerade Ball 21st March 2008
Purple face feather lady
Scary drunk big bird
. . . In his birdcage
Supping from the fountain of punch
Rachel & James, incognito
Who is behind the masks??
drunken me
Caped crusaders
Sarah looking very feline... miow
Boys, and is that Predator in the bottom left hand corner??
That's it then.
OK....
House sold... CHECK
Molly transported to the UK... CHECK
Furniture transported to the UK... CHECK
Rest of furniture that we couldn't fit into the van stored safely around at our friend's house... CHECK
Campervan... almost reserved. We're doing the paperwork and have booked a one way flight to Hamburg to collect it at the end of April.
The last week has been totally manic. The van we hired to get our belongings to Enlgand on the ferry was woefully too small, unfortunately you just can't hire large vans on this island. Then our ferry got cancelled because it got holed in bad weather. Luckily we managed to book another crossing which took us to Weymouth rather than Poole so it was a longer drive but a shorter crossing so that wasn't too bad.
We got to Southampton and the lock up is also woefully too small (are you getting the feeling that we miscalculated the amount of stuff we have!?) so we have crammed it best we can for the moment, and any leftovers will have to go in the in-laws loft. Being that we only managed to get about half of our stuff over to the UK we now have the other half temporarily stored at a very kind friends house. The same friends that we are staying at for the next week until an empty flat comes available for the following 3 weeks. So, it's been busy busy then.
Molly made the ferry/van journey in one piece, mostly in her basket on my lap, without too much of a song and dance. She did really well, bless her, and after a couple of traumatic days she has really settled down in Southampton.
We just have to sell 2 cars and a boat now and we're all set! :)
We're flying to Hamburg at the end of April to pick up our fun wagon!! It is a 2000 Hymer S630 and very sexy.
House sold... CHECK
Molly transported to the UK... CHECK
Furniture transported to the UK... CHECK
Rest of furniture that we couldn't fit into the van stored safely around at our friend's house... CHECK
Campervan... almost reserved. We're doing the paperwork and have booked a one way flight to Hamburg to collect it at the end of April.
The last week has been totally manic. The van we hired to get our belongings to Enlgand on the ferry was woefully too small, unfortunately you just can't hire large vans on this island. Then our ferry got cancelled because it got holed in bad weather. Luckily we managed to book another crossing which took us to Weymouth rather than Poole so it was a longer drive but a shorter crossing so that wasn't too bad.
We got to Southampton and the lock up is also woefully too small (are you getting the feeling that we miscalculated the amount of stuff we have!?) so we have crammed it best we can for the moment, and any leftovers will have to go in the in-laws loft. Being that we only managed to get about half of our stuff over to the UK we now have the other half temporarily stored at a very kind friends house. The same friends that we are staying at for the next week until an empty flat comes available for the following 3 weeks. So, it's been busy busy then.
Molly made the ferry/van journey in one piece, mostly in her basket on my lap, without too much of a song and dance. She did really well, bless her, and after a couple of traumatic days she has really settled down in Southampton.
We just have to sell 2 cars and a boat now and we're all set! :)
We're flying to Hamburg at the end of April to pick up our fun wagon!! It is a 2000 Hymer S630 and very sexy.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Packing and more packing
Gah. So, to bring you up to speed, Nick and I are selling our house, boat and two cars and are off travelling for a while. There is an awful lot to sort out, as we complete on our house next week and before that we have to lug our stuff across to Southampton on the ferry to put it into long term storage. We also have to transport our cat Molly on the ferry at the same time, to take her to her new life with Nick's parents.
So the last few days have been pretty full on, with poor Nick taking this whole week off work to sort things out. Luckily it's Easter weekend so I don't have to work tomorrow or Monday, and I've taken Tues & Wed off as holiday to get everything done. Once we have completed we are relying on the generosity of friends for another month while we stay on here in Guernsey and work out our notices. Its a bit of a nightmare but our buyers really wanted to get in quick so we had to bite the bullet.
So if anyone wants to have a lovely big cheese plant can they let me know... it is rather large.
After we finish work, we plan to buy our camper, probably in Germany as it is noticeably cheaper to purchase there and then reregister. But get this, to reregister a camper in Guernsey you need to have planning permission in place for where you plan to park it! How overly complicated. Obviously insurance and everything like that must be sorted as well.
OK well please wish me luck for the next few days, lets hope we can fit everything in that van...
So the last few days have been pretty full on, with poor Nick taking this whole week off work to sort things out. Luckily it's Easter weekend so I don't have to work tomorrow or Monday, and I've taken Tues & Wed off as holiday to get everything done. Once we have completed we are relying on the generosity of friends for another month while we stay on here in Guernsey and work out our notices. Its a bit of a nightmare but our buyers really wanted to get in quick so we had to bite the bullet.
So if anyone wants to have a lovely big cheese plant can they let me know... it is rather large.
After we finish work, we plan to buy our camper, probably in Germany as it is noticeably cheaper to purchase there and then reregister. But get this, to reregister a camper in Guernsey you need to have planning permission in place for where you plan to park it! How overly complicated. Obviously insurance and everything like that must be sorted as well.
OK well please wish me luck for the next few days, lets hope we can fit everything in that van...
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Packing Up the House
God, do I hate packing. We are right in the middle of it at the moment, Nick has taken the week off and there are boxes everywhere. Today is the day he sorts out the shed, yesterday it was the big cupboard under the stairs... who knows what excitement tomorrow will bring? The ladies at the local charity shop love me, I have given them so much stuff the last couple of days. Really, I should have done a carboot sale but I really don't have the time unfortunately.
I have little chillblains all over my fingers, they don't hurt as such but they make my hands feel super sensitive, as if the nerve endings are right there on the surface. Can't complain really but still, its annoying as I am super careful to wear gloves when I'm out. I'm still taking the gingko bilola tablets when I remember, which is supposed to help.
I am counting down the days until I leave this job, there's still a good few weeks to go. Our house completes a week on Thursday and before then we have to make a trip to the UK to put our stuff into storage, joy. We are also taking Molly over then to settle her into her new groove, which will be living at Nick's parents house. Poor little mite, she's going to detest the journey.
I am so annoyed because I called my Doctor yesterday to let them know my new address, and they were like 'Oh I'm so glad you called, you are due a smear test!' CHEERS. Yuck yuck yuck I hate being a girl. I really don't think that many men could handle lying with their legs akimbo having a metal ducks bill prodded up inside them. Oh well as long as they warm it first...
Roast chicken for tea tonight, mmmm.
I have little chillblains all over my fingers, they don't hurt as such but they make my hands feel super sensitive, as if the nerve endings are right there on the surface. Can't complain really but still, its annoying as I am super careful to wear gloves when I'm out. I'm still taking the gingko bilola tablets when I remember, which is supposed to help.
I am counting down the days until I leave this job, there's still a good few weeks to go. Our house completes a week on Thursday and before then we have to make a trip to the UK to put our stuff into storage, joy. We are also taking Molly over then to settle her into her new groove, which will be living at Nick's parents house. Poor little mite, she's going to detest the journey.
I am so annoyed because I called my Doctor yesterday to let them know my new address, and they were like 'Oh I'm so glad you called, you are due a smear test!' CHEERS. Yuck yuck yuck I hate being a girl. I really don't think that many men could handle lying with their legs akimbo having a metal ducks bill prodded up inside them. Oh well as long as they warm it first...
Roast chicken for tea tonight, mmmm.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Seonaid's Hen Night - 8th March 2008
Thankyou to Katie, Gem & Isla, I stole these photos off their facebook pages...
The location... London town... Docklands, to be precise.
The location... London town... Docklands, to be precise.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Bwwwwwwop
That's the sound my stomach just made. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I think it's probably a BAD thing. Oh dear, please feel sorry for me. I feel grotty all over. I had a wondrous lovely holiday, skiing was fabulous, but I picked up the lurgy of doom on the way back and I have been bed ridden for the last few days.
I came into work on Monday with a very sore throat, struggled through the day, went home and basically collapsed. I spent Tues gargling salt water and overdosing on painkillers, and by yesterday the doom throat was gone but I was left feeling like I had been drugged with horse tranquilizers. I basically slept for most of the day, I figured out that I was only awake for 7 hours in total.
Today I woke up feeling marginally better so I came into work. I managed some food this morning which is a good sign. And now I have to train up the new person who is sat in my desk. I had to do that on Monday as well, when I was feeling so crapdoodle. I basically came back from holiday on Monday to find that a new person was sat in my desk and I had been relegated to the cold, drafty old desk but ALL OF MY STUFF including my hard drive with email, etc, is still over where she is sat which is really rude. I am sat here at a weird computer which was redundant until recently, feeling poorly and shat upon. The first thing I had to do on Monday morning was to carry my drawers and clobber across the office into this desk where I'm sat now. CHEERS.
It's OK, I have handed my notice in. I wouldn't normally rant about working conditions but I'm off in a certain number of weeks and my bosses have made it blatantly obvious that they couldn't give a crap about me now that I'm leaving so...
On a more happy note, my holiday ruled!! Skiiing is great! A little scary yes, but great. I am a very slow skiier, I got some impressive bruises on me batty, but wow wow wow what fun. Going right to the very top of a beautiful mountain, breathing in the clean air and getting all the way to the bottom without falling over was just about the best thing ever. I also was made to ski down a mountain at night while drunk, which I was a bit upset about at the time but in retrospect I'm glad I achieved. I was shitting myself at the time in all honesty. God so much to tell! I must get some pics up soon.
We went to Les Arcs which is so great for total beginners like me - loads of nice easy blue runs to get my teeth into. My friends were so amazingly calm and patient with me, I was the only novice and they really looked after me so well.. So thankyou Sue, Laurie, Fran & James. The nightlife was so funny, we had two ridiculous nights out in the town. Our chalet host Tom was just awesome, basically a Michelin starred chef, cooking up gorgeous 3 course meals each night. And the 2 randoms we ended up sharing our chalet with - Andy & John, were just two really super guys, we couldn't have asked for better company. Anyway I heartily recommend skiing.
I came into work on Monday with a very sore throat, struggled through the day, went home and basically collapsed. I spent Tues gargling salt water and overdosing on painkillers, and by yesterday the doom throat was gone but I was left feeling like I had been drugged with horse tranquilizers. I basically slept for most of the day, I figured out that I was only awake for 7 hours in total.
Today I woke up feeling marginally better so I came into work. I managed some food this morning which is a good sign. And now I have to train up the new person who is sat in my desk. I had to do that on Monday as well, when I was feeling so crapdoodle. I basically came back from holiday on Monday to find that a new person was sat in my desk and I had been relegated to the cold, drafty old desk but ALL OF MY STUFF including my hard drive with email, etc, is still over where she is sat which is really rude. I am sat here at a weird computer which was redundant until recently, feeling poorly and shat upon. The first thing I had to do on Monday morning was to carry my drawers and clobber across the office into this desk where I'm sat now. CHEERS.
It's OK, I have handed my notice in. I wouldn't normally rant about working conditions but I'm off in a certain number of weeks and my bosses have made it blatantly obvious that they couldn't give a crap about me now that I'm leaving so...
On a more happy note, my holiday ruled!! Skiiing is great! A little scary yes, but great. I am a very slow skiier, I got some impressive bruises on me batty, but wow wow wow what fun. Going right to the very top of a beautiful mountain, breathing in the clean air and getting all the way to the bottom without falling over was just about the best thing ever. I also was made to ski down a mountain at night while drunk, which I was a bit upset about at the time but in retrospect I'm glad I achieved. I was shitting myself at the time in all honesty. God so much to tell! I must get some pics up soon.
We went to Les Arcs which is so great for total beginners like me - loads of nice easy blue runs to get my teeth into. My friends were so amazingly calm and patient with me, I was the only novice and they really looked after me so well.. So thankyou Sue, Laurie, Fran & James. The nightlife was so funny, we had two ridiculous nights out in the town. Our chalet host Tom was just awesome, basically a Michelin starred chef, cooking up gorgeous 3 course meals each night. And the 2 randoms we ended up sharing our chalet with - Andy & John, were just two really super guys, we couldn't have asked for better company. Anyway I heartily recommend skiing.
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